let's get together and share the night
by Gazelle Of Endrrat
Summary: The Fourth of July was special to them in more ways than one.


Barbara moved out of the way quickly as Conner and Wally ran past, both held boxes with colorful objects inside. "What's up with them?" She asked M'gann who was nearby.

"Kaldur, Dick, and those two are getting ready for tomorrow."

"They're pretty excited though, aren't they? I thought we're just doing a simple barbecue for the Fourth of July?"

"Just wait till tomorrow." Barbara raised an eyebrow but M'gann just smiled.

/~/

"You guys brought everything here?" Dick started to check off the list he held once he began to count their supplies.

"Yeah, pretty much." Wally answered, satisfied with their work.

The four boys stepped back to look at the boxes and boxes of fireworks, sparklers, and fountains. "We got so much this year," Conner commented. The other three nodded, all grinning.

"That's good though. C'mon Conner! We gotta impress!" Wally threw an arm around his friend and started to mess with his hair. "It's our anniversary. It's gotta be a good time or there's no point."

/~/

They were all forced to sleep over at the cave.

It was a bit confusing to the newer members- Barbara, Karen, Mal, Jason, Garth, and Tula- they had no idea what was in store for them. The older members just laughed and slyly smirked when their friends questioned their behavior. While the others didn't reveal anything about their activities for the next day, they just rolled along with it.

They awoke to disturbing sounds (Wally was playing the trumpet and the music he played was more likely to be used for torture than used in a marching band) and the original members pushing them out of their beds.

/~/

_"You guys are so slow!"_ M'gann said through their mind link, out to everyone. They were all getting their things together, trying to quickly grab their bathing suits or sunscreen. From what they were told they couldn't come back to the cave to grab anything. The day was meant to be spent outside.

As they gathered in the kitchen M'gann was giving out orders. She gave each person a job to do.

_Carry out the barbecue grill _and _Make sure to grab all the chicken _and _Don't you dare forget the volleyball._

One by one they followed M'gann out of the cave and through the exit that led straight to the beach.

/~/

"Why are none of the mentors here? It is the Fourth of July, right? Wouldn't at least one of them want to spend it with us?" Being the new kid on the team wasn't so easy but Jason had a skill of adapting easily. And just like he adapted to the rich lifestyle that the Wayne's had, he adapted to the attitude of the team. To the loudness and to the optimism and to the fun they had.

He helped Artemis carry a cooler out of the cave and to the beach. The team was throwing a little party for the night. Just for themselves.

"They all have families to go to but some of them do want to stay with us. We just tell them not to. Whenever it's Fourth of July we like to hang out with each other." Artemis told him as she quickly walked across the sand. "Don't worry. It's actually a really cool day. The best time is when it's night. The boys love to put on a light show for us. You'll love it, trust me."

Jason grinned.

/~/

"Hey! Can we get some hot dogs over here!?" Dick called out to M'gann and Tula who were manning the grill. Conner came by with a plate and an apologetic smile. They piled the forty hot dogs on the plate and when the last one was placed on top of the pyramid the plate was suddenly gone and a streak of red could be seen.

"Wally!" Karen rolled her eyes as soon as they rested on the speedster. He held the plate in one hand and a hot dog in another. "You're always doing that. Would you mind stopping?" Karen was easily one of the toughest members of the teen, she could chastise Conner easily and take down Kaldur if she needed to, but when it came to Wally she was reduced to warning him like a big sister. She had a soft spot for him and he knew that.

"Uh, yeah." He grinned at her. "M'gann! These dogs are delicious."

"That's not funny man. Give it here," Conner held out his hands as he neared his friend. Wally took a moment to look considerate but in the end he ran away again.

Zatanna moved out-of-the-way easily as Wally and Conner spun around her. She was charged with taking pictures and she did her job diligently. She took pictures of almost everything- Artemis and Raquel catching flying hot dogs, Mal and Karen in the sand, Jason and Dick laughing as they told jokes to each other.

Almost everything, she couldn't get a shot of when Wally tripped and fell into the sand.

/~/

They did three games of ultimate Frisbee before they all gave up.

It wasn't fair that Conner and Mal were on the same team. They kept throwing the disk too far and once it even fell into the water.

And due to an obsession of throwing people into water, Wally and Conner took Jason and threw him into the ocean to retrieve it. They screamed encouraging words such as _"Swim, Jason! Swim!"_ and _"You're missing the damn thing! Over to your left, you blind bat!" _It was easy to guess who said what.

Next they played tag, even though there were objections from the non-powered members. It quickly turned into Manhunt the second Mal and Kaldur teamed up to capture Wally, who kept stealing the hamburgers that Garth had grilled.

Jason had to watch from afar as he dried in the sun. He sat with Tula, she wasn't too fond of running around in the forest barefoot, and commented every now and then when he could see what was happening.

"I swear if they play duck, duck, goose next. I'm leaving." She had no idea what he was talking about but she still laughed. For his sake.

/~/

It was getting too hot for them after a while and so they began stripping to their bathing suits to go into the water.

Kaldur and Garth were already in, unnoticed by the others. Most of the others were in the water playing a game of Marco Polo, all laughing at Dick's blindness in the water. The game was ruined when Conner and Wally decided to cannonball. Raquel and Artemis hunted them down and dragged them underneath the surface in revenge for the large waves that hit them directly.

It became a game of volleyball then. Girls against boys. It would have been a fair game if Kaldur and Garth hadn't sabotaged the girls by tripping them into the water. They yelled and they flailed their arms as they got pulled in.

/~/

They finally started the fire when it started to become dark. Conner, Kaldur, and Mal were given the task to find stuff to sit on while Dick and Wally fought over the fire. It was all set up and the pile of sticks were waiting but the two were arguing over the method to use. Wally wanted to do it old school, sticks and rocks, but Dick disagreed.

"Just turn it on already!" Raquel yelled at them.

"Hey, idiots," Zatanna came up from behind them and whispered, "etaerc a erif." Wally groaned and Dick stuck his tongue out at him.

The other boys came back with large wooden logs. Everyone began to help create a circle around the fire.

In the middle of it, Roy appeared. He shifted from foot to foot and spoke low. "GA told me to come or he'd put me on night watch in Star City."

Kaldur smiled and patted the place next to him. "Come and sit."

/~/

They told stories for a while. M'gann shared Martian fairy tales. Kaldur, Tula, and Garth worked together to tell horror stories. Even the Gothamites had a few stories to tell. The second they started to share the urban legends of the Scarecrow the others asked them to stop.

"I'm trying to have a good day here," Mal told them. "Not have it end with me scared about straw brain."

They ate s'mores and had a competition to see who could eat the most. Wally wasn't allowed to enter, which saddened him deeply.

Conner won and Zatanna took the winning shot of him stuffing his twenty-first s'more into his mouth.

/~/

There were speeches.

"Alright, settle down! Settle down!" Wally got up from his seat and started to walk. He looked at each face and circled around the campfire, his arms behind his back and his head held high. "I've got something to say."

"Oh, here we go," Artemis held her forehead and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees.

"What's wrong?" Barbara looked from her seat on the sand. She was one of the only ones who remained in their bathing suits.

"He's gonna make a speech."

Barbara laughed and Jason quirked an eyebrow. He was sitting next to her and was eating a hot dog, happy that one had survived the creature that was Wally. "Well, it isn't that surprising that someone is gonna make some type of speech. It is the Fourth of July."

"Just wait and listen," Artemis warned.

Wally stopped in the middle of Dick and Conner and kept his hands behind his back. "So, three years ago, on this very day, I and my crazy buddies, named Dick and Kaldur, snuck into Cadmus labs." Artemis rolled her eyes and started to mouth the words while the others listened intensely. "There we got involved in some weird shit-"

"He does the same speech every Fourth of July." Artemis whispered to Barbara and Jason. "He has it written down so when this time comes he can memorize it and can repeat it off the bat."

Barbara snorted and Jason rolled his eyes. "But you have to admit, it's a good one."

"Not after three years."

"... There we met this guy," Wally dropped to his knees and threw an arm around Conner to draw him into his chest. "My very first souvenir." Conner growled and everyone else laughed.

/~/

They started the fireworks when the time clocked in at 11:12

Wally quickly brought the boxes he and the other three boys had hidden before out to the beach and began to pass out sparklers and the fountains.

Tula and Garth were amazed by the sparks produced by their fountains, they were monitored by Kaldur and Roy who smiled at the excitement from the two. Jason and Barbara set off the firecrackers, grinning at the ridiculous sounds being produced.

Wally and Dick in the meantime played with sparklers. They scared M'gann and Conner, who were making out behind some bushes, with the sticks. They had no regrets even though Conner ran after them to beat them up.

They waited till the end to put on their larger displays. As one firework went on after another, making different shapes with different colors in the sky, everyone gathered around the still burning fire and watched in awe. The light breeze tousled their hair and the colors from the bright fireworks reflected in their eyes.

/~/

The air was humid and the tide was low and that meant they were sleeping on the beach that night.

Wally and Artemis cuddled against one of the logs, his toes close to the flame and her feet wrapped around his legs. She complained about how hot he was, saying that he was radiating heat. He just laughed and hugged her closer.

Jason curled up near the fire, his back to the ocean and his face to the flames. He was at the feet of Barbara who had laid against one of the logs. Her head tipped back too far until Dick placed his folded up sweater under it. When he was sure she was comfortable he went over to Zatanna who had made an area to sleep for themselves.

M'gann and Conner took to sleeping by some bushes closer to the forest and near them the three Atlanteans were with Raquel and Roy, their backs up against the large rocks.

Mal and Karen didn't go to sleep until later, they spent an extra hour skipping rocks in the night and taking a walk along the shore. When they came back they found everyone asleep and the fire still burning. Karen clucked under tongue at the dangerous scene and snuffed out the fire before she went to lay beside Mal.

/~/

They awoke to seagulls poking around their stuff.

Raquel chased them away by using some of the lying branches that were around. One by one they all woke up as they were poked in the ass by Raquel and her dangerous branch. Some had headaches and others were chipper.

They all helped clean the mess and take their things inside. It was a lazy and slow morning as everyone dragged themselves and their possessions in.

Roy was gone before they even noticed and when they did they didn't think too much of it. They were just glad he spent the night with them.

Wally ate leftovers and Artemis wouldn't go near him, with his breath of morning stink and barbecue sauce. Conner carried in a still sleeping M'gann while Barbara and Zatanna tailed after them with the cooler. Dick was with Garth and Tula, telling them that this was going to happen every year they were on the team and that they should look forward to it.

The last person to leave the beach was Jason, who was still gathering his clothes while the others made their way in. He mumbled under his breath about revenge against those two losers- Conner and Wally. Once he had everything he started to walked, feet bare and legs covered in sand. He took one good look at the area before he stepped into the entrance of the cave and he grinned widely. He would never tell anyone but he really loved yesterday. Probably his favorite day with the team and he was looking forward to more days like that.


End file.
